FSMK protests against
the attack of freedom in the Internet
Internet
Freedom is under sever attack from many quarters – the Ministry of
Information and Technology, various state governments, the police,
international lobbying and now certain major Internet Service
Providers (ISP's) such as Reliance Communications, Airtel and MTNL
have joined the league.
After
trying to constrain the nature of opinion that could be put up on the
Internet in the form of the hasty IT Intermediaries Bill which faced
tremendous opposition, now major websites such as Vimeo for video
sharing, and various peer-to-peer file sharing or the Torrent sites
commonly used for exchange of large files between users are being
blocked by these ISP's, without any instructions issued by the
Government.
We have
already seen the effect of the IT Rules in which a huge number of
requests are now being directed to intermediaries such as Google,
Facebook, etc for taking down statements critical of the Government
and political figures. Cases are being instituted by the Police under
the IT Act against circulating of cartoons, calling it a cyber crime.
All this shows that our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms in a
democratic framework are currently under attack.
Equally
worrying is the tendency of courts to issue blanket orders -- called
John Doe orders – in the USA to protect the Intellectual Property
of certain media companies, which have been wholeheartedly endorsed
by corporations like Reliance Communications – an Internet Service
Provider acting in the interest of Reliance as a Media company to
block a large number of Torrent sites.
Free
Software Movement Karnataka is a team of Internet activists and
technology enthusiasts coming from various walks of life. We
understand that without openly criticising the stands and actions of
the freedom curbing authorities today freedom in the Internet is at
stake,which consequentially would cripple the transparent functioning
of democracy.
Join us
to understand details of the Internet censorship and shutting down of
websites issue; how it would impact you and the nation as a whole.
Internet is the voice
of people today, don't let them dumb us down!
We
have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Thomas
Paine
The internet freedom should not be attacked. As a subscriber of an Australian internet service provider, it is my responsibility to promote responsible internet use because it can bring a lot of advantages especially to students.
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